Zoroastrianism
Zarathustra
Iranian prophet and founder of Zoroastrianism, traditional author of the Gathas — the oldest stratum of the Avesta and the only portion of the corpus indisputably attributed to him. He proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the supreme uncreated god in opposition to the daevas, framed existence as a moral struggle between Asha (truth) and Druj (falsehood), and called every person to free choice between the two. His revelation profoundly shaped post-exilic Jewish, Christian, and Islamic eschatology — judgment, resurrection, the heaven/hell binary — through Persian rule of the Levant.
The Magi of Matthew 2 are traditionally identified with Zoroastrian priests. Greek thinkers (Plato, Pliny) attribute the doctrines of dualism and astral immortality to Zoroaster. Modern scholarship debates whether resurrection and final judgment in Second-Temple Judaism were borrowed from Zoroastrian models or developed independently.